Postpartum depression more common in pregnant women with rheumatic disease

Women of reproductive age with axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA), psoriatic arthritis (PsA), or rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are more likely to experience postpartum depression than those without any rheumatic disease (RD), according to a study.

Using the 2013-2018 IBM MarketScan Commercial Claims and Encounters Database, a group of researchers performed this retrospective analysis to identify pregnant women with axSpA, PsA, or RA. The delivery date was used as the index date. Participants were restricted to women aged ≤55 years with continuous enrolment ≥6 months before date of last menstrual period and throughout pregnancy.

Each patient was matched with four individuals without RD based on maternal age at delivery, prior history of depression, and duration of depression before delivery.

Cox frailty proportional hazards models were used to calculate the crude and adjusted hazard ratios (aHR), with 95 percent confidence interval (CI), of incident postpartum depression within 1 year among women with axSpA, PsA, or RA compared with matched non-RD women.

In total, 2,667 women with axSpA, PsA, or RA and 10,668 patients without any RD were included in the analysis, with median follow-up time of 256 and 265 days for the axSpA/PsA/RA cohort and matched non-RD comparison group, respectively.

Postpartum depression more frequently occurred in women with axSpA, PsA, or RA than in the matched non-RD comparison group (17.2 percent vs 12.8 percent; aHR, 1.22, 95 percent CI, 1.09‒1.36).

“Postpartum depression is significantly higher in women of reproductive age with axSpA/PsA/RA when compared to those without RD,” the researchers said.